Exit plan

[Ceba]

Hey everybody,

I have a tuchy 2.5 year old boy. He has a small developmental setback so he doesn't speak at all. We communicate with baby sign language and he screams a lot to let us know what he wants.
When we were sleep training him he had big problems with his allergies, so it took us a long time to get him to fall asleep alone in his bed. But what happend was that we never got to the point that we can leave the room before he is sound asleep. I have tried moving my chair slowly closer to the door (over a period of days) but once I had the door opened he started screaming.
I need a plan on how to get him to fall asleep alone in his room but with small and easy steps so that I don't stress him out.
Any suggestions?

[*Ali*]

How long does he take to fall asleep? If not long I'd just keep on as you are for now.  It doesnt sound like he's ready for independent sleep just yet.

What if you said you were just going to do something like use the toilet, brush your teeth, hang the washing etc and then you'd come back and check on him? Might be fall asleep waiting?